


Employee of the Month

by AmmyMcKay



Series: Awestruck Tales [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Gas-N-Sip, Gen, Human Castiel, POV Outsider, Praying to Castiel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-22
Updated: 2016-08-22
Packaged: 2018-08-10 10:03:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7840462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmmyMcKay/pseuds/AmmyMcKay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Steve quits his job at the Gas-N-Sip, Nora and Trey discover who he really is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Employee of the Month

Nora came into work. She looked tired, hair frizzed from humidity and stress. Her baby had been colicky and the constant wail and tears had left her haggard. She knew coming in that today would not be a good day.

"Steve quit," Trey said.

The thought of Steve quitting seemed to be almost impossible. The man was dependable to a fault. "What do you mean, he quit?" she asked.

"Literally. He thanked us for the opportunity and walked out of that door," Trey said, gesturing towards the exit.

"Shit."

"I know."

\---

Nora and Trey had a moment where nobody came in. The hours were dead and Trey had another hour before his shift was over. She glanced at the clock. Time went slower without Steve. His odd mannerisms had been a source of entertainment and his work ethic was a pleasant change of pace compared to the usual employee's complaints. As if he were happy to be here.

"I miss him," Trey said, breaking the silence. "He was so friggin' weird."

Nora laughed. "Yeah, he was. Remember how confused he was about the Window Cleaner?"

" _This does not taste very well,"_ Trey mimicked Steve's gruff voice, but comically exaggerated so he sounded like Batman. " _How does this help me clean the windows?"_

"And we had to call Poison Control!" Nora was laughing, tears in her eyes now. It was frightening at the time, but what made it hilarious to remember was Steve crossing his arms, looking queasy for a second, and then being forced to vomit everything back up, but ultimately, not being any worse for wear.

 _"It was not apparent to me that it was designed for use as a glass polisher and disinfectant."_ Trey mimicked, and then, in his normal voice, "But at least he learned from his mistakes."

"Then he painstakingly read every single thing on every single label in the store," Nora smiled.

"Yeah. And then I had to tell him that our customers do not want to hear the nutritional values of all the food they bought here."

"I can't believe he remembered it all," Nora said. Her voice was full of wonder.

"Do you think he was a savant or something?" Trey asked.

Nora shrugged. "Probably."

\---

"You survived!" Trey laughed when Nora came out of the women's bathroom with her hair disheveled. Before she went to clean it, she had Trey look at it. The two of them were in the bathroom earlier, just marvelling at how a human being could create a mess like that. "Why is it always the woman's bathroom?" he asked.

"I have no clue. You'd think girls would try to keep the bathroom clean." There was somehow poop on the walls, all over the toilet, in the sink, and on the toilet paper all over the floor.

"I used to work at a fast food joint. Every so often, the women's bathroom would get like that. We would say 'The Mad Crapper has struck again.'"

Nora smiled as she stifled a soft laugh. It came out as a sharper than usual exhale through her nose. "Days like this, I miss Steve." But really, she almost always missed him.

"Yeah, he'd always clean the bathroom even if someone crayoned their shit on the walls. No complaint." And then, jokingly, Trey added. "Guy wasn't human."

They both smiled at that.

\---

Nora picked up the boxes full of overstock. She almost expected that gruff voice behind her. _"Do you need help with that?"_ And he'd easily lift the box and put it where it belonged. She turned around and saw nobody. When she came out, she saw one of her sales associates, leaning at the register.

"If you got time to lean, you've got time to clean," she said as she tossed him a rag. The boy complained and she wiped her finger on one of the shelves and pulled off a layer of dust. Her eyebrows quirked up, daring the kid to challenge her. He muttered curses under his breath as he started dusting.

She never had to tell Steve that except for the very first day when he seemed confused and lost about everything. And he never complained when she told him to do something or showed him how to do it. He did make more than a few messes, but she always saw him as a special case.

Trey was in the office on a call with their district manager. The both of them were trying to figure out what had happened to Steve. He hadn't come back to the shelter. He hadn't called anybody. He was annoyed that Steve decided to leave when he was on duty rather than Nora. She was better at these kinds of things. Trey emerged from the office, having had to recount the events of when Steve decided to leave the building.

"So? How was it?"

"He says he cares. But that's bullshit because then he says that they might partner with local programs to find us a replacement."

"I don't want a replacement," Nora said, arms crossing. "I want Steve back."

\---

"You were there the day he came in for the interview. What was he like?" Trey asked.

"You know. He was Steve." Nora smiled.

She recalled what the caseworker had said before bringing him in: ' _You don't have to hire him, but it would help him out a lot. He's a sweet man. Just down on his luck. He is more than capable for the work and is quite agreeable to get along with.'_

Nora glanced up to Trey. "Well, I ended up having to hire him. He knew several languages. And we all knew how well that came in handy when that German guy came in that one day."

Trey laughed, " _Ja._ Hey, I'm glad you hired the guy."

"Me, too."

\---

Nora and Trey pooled their money together to hire a private investigator. It was Trey's idea, but once he suggested it, Nora couldn't help but go along with it. She was too curious about what happened to Steve. They shouldn't care that much, but they did.

In fact, reminiscing about Steve had caused them to forge a strong friendship.

"I'm pretty sure he had been sleeping in the building at night," Nora said as she put away some of the inventory that had come in on the truck.

"I caught him rolling up his sleeping bag once. Actually, the day he quit." And there was guilt to his voice. "Do you think…?"

"No, Trey. I don't know what possessed him to leave that day." She paused and then admitted. "Well, I… I think he had a crush on me. And I had him babysit my daughter while I went on a date. It was my way of telling him _not interested_ without telling him I was not interested."

"Ouch," Trey said. "You are one heartless bitch."

"Well, you know the guy I was going on the date with? Yeah, he stood me up," she said. "I'm stupid. Maybe if I just talked it out like an adult, he would have stayed."

Trey touched her arm. A friend comforting another. "Hey, it was his choice."

"You think the PI will find something?"

The dark skinned young man shrugged. "I hope he's okay."

"Yeah, me too."

\---

Nora and Trey arrived in the Private Investigator's office. He was an older, thick-bodied man named Frank. He preferred being called by his first name. Mr. Pellan was his father, after all. He would sigh long and hard before he got up and sat down. As if he had seen a lot of shit in the world and was just getting tired of it all.

He pulled out a folder from his files. He sighed as he sat back down at the desk. Nora had her baby on her lap. She couldn't find a babysitter in time for this meeting. Frank smiled at the child, gently. He then looked to Trey, who was the young man who had talked with him for much of his investigation. He had come up empty for a long time until he had a breakthrough.

"So, his name is not Steve Clarence. It's James 'Jimmy' Novak."

Frank thumbed through the files and pulled out a picture of a smiling man. He looked so human and expressive compared to the Steve that Nora and Trey knew that they couldn't believe he was the same man. His hair was neat. His posture was straight and he looked every bit like a well-adjusted suburbanite. "He went missing a couple years ago. Left a wife and kid." He pulled out information about them. "Then his wife, Amelia, went missing, leaving his only daughter Claire in the foster system."

Nora frowned. This didn't seem like something that Steve would do. She clutched her own daughter protectively. He had shown such a fondness to Tanya that she could believe he had been a father, though to hear that he had abandoned his only daughter drove a cold spike through her heart.

Trey chewed on his lip. "Do you know why he left?"

"Actually, yes. His wife, before she disappeared, claimed that her husband was possessed by an angel and was doing God's work."

"So, religious?"

Frank shrugged. He pulled out another photograph of Jimmy Novak. His hair was messy, like they were used to seeing with Steve. There was a solemnity in his eyes that was familiar. But the blue in them seemed more intense than they had ever seen him. He wore a trenchcoat. And his tie was poorly knotted, flipping backwards in the photograph. He was slightly hunched, as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders. It was Steve, but different.

He put forward a copy of some paperwork. Another picture. "Then, he took the name Emmanuel for a short amount of time. And then, he was admitted to a mental health hospital in 2012 before disappearing again. Seemingly into thin air." He pulled out more files and explained more about what made this case so weird. There were even some moments where it would seem like Jimmy would be across the country in a span of a few minutes--an impossible feat. Nothing could move that fast.

"This is like X-Files," Trey said. Nora bounced her baby on her lap quietly. Perhaps it had been a mistake to investigate.

\---

Back at the Gas-N-Sip, in their uniforms, they found another hour where there weren't many people coming in. They had talked about everything except Steve that whole day, but when the store was dead as it was now, the subject seemed too big to just loom in the corner.

"So, Steve," Trey said, bringing it up first.

"Steve," Nora echoed, hollowly.

And then they recalled all the strange occurrences. For example, he didn't die when he drank the window washing fluid. He was sick sure, but it was bad taco sick. Or that time someone came in speaking very broken English and German, but he not only understood them, but conversed with them. Or how quickly he could read. Or that fantastic memory he had. It started to make more and more sense and it also scared them more and more. They didn't dare voice their suspicions aloud. _Steve is not human._

It was stupid. It was ridiculous. And, in the back of their minds… probably true.

"He was a good guy, right?" Trey asked, uncertain.

Both of them thumbed through their memories of him. "Yeah. He really was."

\---

They went back to Frank's office. But found he was nowhere to be seen. The door eased open at the smallest touch. Trey's phone was ringing, but he put it on silent to continue into the office. No phone call was more important than this moment.

And then Nora's phone was ringing, but her hands were too full to fiddle with it. She had little Tanya in her arms and was bouncing her. She had decided to bring her daughter because of how sweet Frank was to her. Her phone stopped ringing. Finally, the office phone started ringing.

Trey looked to Nora. Both of them were on edge. Whatever was going on was straight out of a horror film. He picked up the office phone and brought it to his ear. It was a voice, a soft whisper that sounded like a child. "I couldn't have found Castiel without you."

"Who is Castiel?" Trey asked automatically.

Nora shushed her baby, who was feeling anxious due to the fear in the air. Tanya squirmed and fussed.

And in the phone, that small whisper said, "I am sure he'll come for you."

And the fire flooded their senses. Blue flames that magicked them away from the office and into a storage room somewhere. Frank was there, arms crossed, looking weary and resigned to his fate. He sat on an old desk. There was office furniture everywhere.

"I tried finding a way out. There's none," he said plainly. It didn't stop Trey and Nora from looking.

They found a cassette player, some old chairs, boxes and boxes of junk, and so many other things.

\---

Frank had Tanya in his arms. He had somehow calmed the child who had been crying uncontrollably in her mother's arms. Perhaps it was because Nora was freaked. She couldn't possibly calm a baby down if she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Everybody was freaking out, but Frank could look almost calm.

The phone rang. They had been trying for the better part of an hour to get the phones to work, but no service. Now, it was ringing. Nora answered her cellphone. "Hello?" She was hoping that it was a family member or a friend. Hoping, but she wasn't surprised when it was the whisperer.

Static broke up the voice and made it hard to hear, but she concentrated. "What's… your name?"

"Nora…"

"Can you call Castiel for me?"

"Who is Castiel?" Nora asked. Her voice wavered.

The voice on the other end simply laughed.

And then, there was a click and a voice played from a cassette player that came from deeper in the dimly lit room. A one-sided conversation. _"Yes… Who are you?"_ It was Steve's voice, rough and deep, pausing between sentences as if someone was answering him. And then, _"My name is Castiel."_

The room went dead silent. It was one question answered. Trey was looking for the cassette player, remembering that he had come across one earlier. He picked it up. There was nothing inside it. No tape. When Steve's gruff voice started speaking again, he nearly dropped it. _"What's your name?"_

"Shit!" Trey said. "There's nothing in here, Nora. There's _nothing_ in here." He opened the player to show her.

And the voice kept playing. _"You still there? Look, I just want to figure out… what you are."_ Another pause and he spoke again. _"Do you remember your name?"_

"Who is he talking to?" Nora asked. Trey was right when he said it was like X-Files.

 _"What do you want?"_ Then, there was a pause to make room for an answer they couldn't hear. _"Honest about what?"_

And then finally, _"I… am no angel. I've made mistakes. Mistakes that hurt those I cared about. My family. My friends. And I'm ill-equipped to even attempt reparations. And I just want to_ fix _things."_

The recordings stopped. The three adults felt their hearts pounding. Nora took her baby from Frank and held her in her arms. She was thinking of Jimmy Novak disappearing, leaving his wife and daughter behind to cope without him. She would never abandon Tanya. Not in a million years. She nuzzled into her daughter.

Frank looked to Trey. "Who was this guy? What aren't you telling me?"

"H-he was just a sales associate like I said. He worked at the Gas-N-Sip with us."

The private investigator rubbed his temples. "Well, apparently, he was associated with some kind of serial killer or something. Maybe a cult." He was wracking his brain trying to understand what was going on.

"Steve isn't like that!"

Tanya started fussing when Trey yelled.

"You don't know him," Frank softened his voice. "You didn't know his real name. It's Jimmy."

"He was a good guy," Trey insisted, remembering the conversation that he and Nora had earlier that week.

Nora held her daughter closer. He was right. She hurt him when she pulled that stunt about making him babysit her child. And she knew she had been leading him on. And he hadn't killed her. They almost killed him when they didn't label the spray bottle and he just drank the blue liquid. And he never complained to clean the bathroom. Even if it had been visited by The Mad Crapper. She had caught him singing to himself on more than one occasion. His gruff voice low as he wiped dust off of the shelves. He  _was_ a good guy.

She remembered Frank explaining it to her. _Possessed by an angel. Doing God's work._

And the voice on the phone that asked her to call him to her. If he were an angel, then it should work. Pray.

She bowed her head, baby still in her arms, and whispered, " _Steve, Jimmy, Emmanuel, Castiel, whatever your name is now. Please. We just want to go home. Tanya is here. I just want her safe."_

Now, she just had to have faith.

**Author's Note:**

> The other half of the dialogue can be read in [Awestruck.](http://archiveofourown.org/works/7295455/chapters/16568689)


End file.
